


Never Alone

by nerdiekatie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aroace Pidge, Aromantic, Aromantic Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Asexual Character, Asexuality, Platonic Relationships, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy, aroace, background hunk/lance/keith, background qp shallura, pushy alien dudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 15:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8061232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdiekatie/pseuds/nerdiekatie
Summary: "'If anyone ever says to you, hey, that green paladin is pretty cute or whatever, you just cut them off. I don’t care what you tell them, I don’t care if you punt them to the next moon. I can deal with it, but I’d prefer if I didn’t have to. Please? You guys would be doing me a huge favor.' Pidge looks at them, with big, earnest eyes."





	

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as trans girl Pidge, and I encourage you to do so, but it's not tagged because it's not referenced within the frame of the fic.   
> I have a theory about the telepathic bond between the paladins. It might help the story (minor details) make sense. You can read it here: http://nerdiekatie.tumblr.com/post/150424117043/id-like-to-explore-the-idea-of-the-paladins  
> and here:  
> http://nerdiekatie.tumblr.com/post/150427180043/craibea-replied-to-your-post-id-like-to-explore

It’s another party thrown by another grateful planet, and Lance is delighted. He loves these. It’s even better because no one is in a healing pod today. The party is in full swing, and he’s had to shoot down one alien’s dreams tonight by demonstrably kissing Hunk and Keith. Keith bears the PDA ambivalently, and that’s how Lance knows he’s in a good mood. 

Lance goes to mingle in the crowd, leaving Keith and Hunk in the circle of adorers they had gathered. Those two tended to be the life of the party, somehow. Lance loves Keith, he does, but it’s Hunk who makes Keith sociable in unfamiliar crowds. Lance can’t figure out how Hunk does it when Keith is normally so awkward with strangers. 

He can see where Allura is playing gracious princess. She’s not playing at it so much as she is a gracious princess, but Lance has been personally victimized by her sparring, so he knows when she’s stepping into a role. He side steps a sea of dancers. Shiro he spots on the east perimeter in the distance. Shiro has never forgotten their first party as Team Voltron. Lance still has the scars from the explosion, so he understands. Pidge he sees much closer, only by virtue of the relative shortness of the natives and the easy recognizability of her armor. Over the past four years in space, the youngest four paladins have gained inches in height. Lance and Hunk are taller than Shiro, now. Pidge, on the other hand, has reached a (probably) terminal height of five feet four inches.

Lance can’t feel her from this distance but he doesn’t need to. Her face is off, he notices. Pidge likes the parties that aren’t held on the ship for the opportunity to check out the tech and get up close and personal with alien biodiversity. She should be loving this. She got an alien at her side, and usually, she would be interrogating him, lighting with glee at new information, but that’s not how it is. 

Her face is twisted in antsy boredom as she listens to the alien, the way she used to get in class at the Garrison when they dared to teach mere mortals like Lance instead of Tech Goddesses like Pidge. He watches her drift slowly through the crowd, this alien dude at her heels. Their expressions are so different that it’s uncomfortable. He’s already started moving in her direction when he sees her spin on her heel to look directly at the alien. 

“What did you just say to me?” Her yell carries across the din of the party. 

Lance pushes his way through the crowd to appear at her shoulder. He knows the score on Earth between pushy dude and girls. Lance may be a bad flirt (Hunk and Keith will both corroborate), but he’s never followed a clearly reluctant flirtee across a party. He knows where to draw the line. 

“What’s up, Pigeon?” he says, pulling out his best imitation of Shiro’s I-don’t-want-to-be-disappointed-in-you-but-I’m-prepared-to-be pose for the alien. The difference between his height and Pidge’s means she has to turn her head straight up to look at him, but she looks relieved at his presence. He notices her fingers tapping at her bayard restlessly.

She jerks a thumb over her shoulder at the alien. “Is he flirting with me? He said he wants to ‘give me a personal thank you for saving the planet.’” She flattens her tone in a clumsy attempt at this planet’s accent. 

Lance thinks it’s a weird question, coming from Pidge. Pidge is extremely observant. She was the one who pointed out his ginormous crush on Keith years ago. He and Hunk owe her one for that (owe her several, is more like it). 

She doesn’t get flirted with very often though, seeing as she’s usually buried in tech. Maybe that’s why she’s confused. 

“Yeah, he’s flirting with you,” he answers. Lance knows Pidge can handle herself, so he stays at her back in solidarity. He does keep his hand conveniently close to his bayard, where alien boy can see it. He grins lazily, but he knows he’s got a bit too many teeth in it and a hard glint in his eye. Lance thinks he sees alien boy gulp. 

Pidge turns back to the alien. “No,” she says flatly. “Leave me alone. The only reason I haven’t fried you with my bayard is because we don’t need an intergalactic incident.” He opens his mouth, but Pidge cuts him off. 

“No,” she says again and turns away to walk with Lance. Lance guides them back toward the group, cracking bad jokes just to see the tension leave her shoulders. 

“Here’s the deal,” she says, when she arrives at the group at large. She snags Keith’s cup of alien alcohol equivalent. Keith looks like he wants to protest but doesn’t because he can tell she needs it (and it’s better to give Pidge what she wants). Lance wants to protest, too, on the basis of developing brains, but he can’t. Not only would that be hypocritical, but she’s eighteen now. Even if they were random kids on Earth still, he wouldn’t be able to tell her not to. He has even less of reason since she’s a paladin of Voltron, savior of multiple galaxies. They’re all entitled to a drink. 

Lance has the sudden realization that tonight’s incident could be because Pidge is eighteen. Where another species might think she’s a child because of her height, this species is short enough that they can recognize that Pidge is obviously an adult of her species. Lance follows the line of thought and realizes that there could be more incidents like tonight. He’s decidedly not a fan of the idea.

Pidge gestures agitatedly with her stolen cup as she speaks. 

“If anyone ever says to you, hey, that green paladin is pretty cute or whatever, you just cut them off. I don’t care what you tell them, I don’t care if you punt them to the next moon. I can deal with it, but I’d prefer if I didn’t have to. Please? You guys would be doing me a huge favor.” Pidge looks at them, with big, earnest eyes, and none of them have the heart to say no. “Woo-hoo. Thanks, guys.” She chugs the cup she has, grabs another, and stalks away from the party. 

They all look at each other. “I’ll go,” says Hunk. Lance pushes concern at him. A few years back there had been an issue- long since resolved- Hunk is the “leg that lifts Voltron up,” sure, but that doesn’t mean he should be expected to do the emotional grunt work without time to himself or reciprocation. Hunk taps Lance on the shoulder, letting him feel that Hunk’s fine. 

Hunk finds Pidge back at the castle, all the way down in Green’s docking bay. He’s not surprised. She probably needs the space from the party. Better for Hunk, it’s familiar ground for the two of them. They’ve run a lot of projects in her make-shift lab down here.  
Hunk draws up to where Pidge is angrily rummaging through her toolbox.

“What was that about?” 

“Just some asshole who wouldn’t know the word no if I tattooed it on his face with my bayard.” Pidge fishes out a wrench and heads to the table that’s got all their plans for mods to the lions. Hunk grabs her hand lightly before she can go far. She senses his intentions and lets him pull her over to sit against Green, with her pressed against his side with his arm over her shoulders. The armor stops them from being connected the way they would be in Voltron, but the proximity helps. From here, he can feel Pidge settling into her bond with Green, even if he doesn’t know what’s going on between them. 

Hunk doesn’t prod, just lets her feel that he’s there. After four years, they can read each other pretty well, so he knows Pidge has been pent up about whatever this is for a while. He waits while Pidge sets aside the anger for later and gathers the thoughts that are really bothering her. 

“I’ve always been more interested in tech. Even decrypting intel is more interesting than anything I could do with another person,” Pidge makes a face when she talks about decrypting intel, and Hunk understands. Decryption takes Pidge anywhere from hours to days, and then she actually has to sort through the data. It’s a long, drawn out process, which takes away most of joy from it. “But,” Pidge continues, “I was just fourteen when we came up here. I’ve never even kissed someone. Like, I could go find an alien, but that’s not what I want? Or how I want to find out what I want? I’d never see them again. It’d feel skeevy. You know, this would be an awkward conversation if we had any boundaries anymore,” she adds offhandedly. Hunk nods. 

“Yeah, probably. Telepathic connections do that.” She gives him a small grin for his joke. 

“Maybe it’d be different on Earth?” Pidge muses. “Lance used to flirt with aliens all the time, so it may or may not be something that matters by species?” Hunk knows. He’s never been jealous of his boyfriend’s indiscriminate bad pick-up lines. It was part of Lance for a long time, but he does appreciate that he limits them to him and Keith now. Mostly. Sometimes, there’s an opportunity and his cheeseball of a boyfriend can’t let it slide. “But I don’t know if that’s a universal truth or just Lance.” 

“Does it do any good to dwell of the what ifs?” he asks. “Are they going to change how you feel right now?” He looks down at Pidge, grateful for the shortened distance between them. Pidge shakes her head up at him.

“Then don’t worry about it. We love you.” He means to leave it there, but Pidge must feel his lingering in concern, because she pokes him in the side. 

“What is it?” 

“I- all of us really- are scared sometimes that you feel lonely. I have Keith and Lance. Shiro and Allura have whatever they have.” No one really knows what Shiro and Allura have. It’s this solid thing, based on mutual respect and, Hunk thinks, the need to just not be a leader for five ticks. 

“Guess that leaves me with Coran, huh?” Pidge says, smiling slyly when Hunk gags and splutters. 

“Ew! Pidge, don’t even joke about that. God, the images in my head. You’re gonna make me sick.” Hunk shakes his head to dislodge the unholy images from his brain. Pidge laughs. 

“Seriously, Hunk. When am I ever alone? I’ve got all of you,” she points out. “We have sleepovers when one of us has a nightmare.” 

Hunk thinks about that. He has Lance and Keith, true, but they’re not more important to him than the team as a whole. They’re just important in different ways. He doesn’t even think he spends more time with them than the rest of the team. 

“I just want to make sure you’re okay, and you’re not turning people down over a misguided fear or something. We wouldn’t think any less of you.” 

She blinks at him slowly, like he’s just suggested they put water in an oil tank.

“What?” he says, lifting his hands defensively. “It’s a problem on Earth.” 

“I don’t know, man. I just don’t want that. I’m happy with this,” she gestures to Hunk sitting next to her. “I feel… good.” 

Hunk wraps an arm back around Pidge and presses a kiss to her forehead. He tunes into their bond. He feels Pidge, amiably happy, and his chest grows warm with hers.

He thinks he understand what she means.


End file.
